


Stage

by Elmina



Category: Gundam Build Fighters
Genre: M/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2014-10-20
Updated: 2014-10-20
Packaged: 2018-04-01 21:41:08
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 4,598
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/4035544
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Elmina/pseuds/Elmina
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Meijin Kawaguchi the 3rd gets dragged into an after-work party, with the Works Team singing karaoke.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Stage

"I'm not entirely sure about this," Kawaguchi voiced his concern once more, but Allan had already dragged him all the way here and was obviously determined to take him along to this "Works Team after-work meet-up" or whatever. Kawaguchi also wasn't about to let himself be physically pulled anywhere, so he followed the man although a bit hesitantly. 

He had only held the title for about a week now and wasn't exactly comfortable with the name and costume quite yet. Nevertheless, Allan had come up with the bright idea that he should participate in an after-work event. He couldn't even remember the names of most of the Works Team members yet, and Allan wanted him to socialize with them? This felt like a test or something. It was so ridiculous, but for some reason he had not outright refused though he was a little reserved about this. 

Whichever the case, they finally stopped in front of a door, and he sighed. "You know, although they are all Works Team, I'm..." 

"I told you already, that's nonsense," Allan stated, turning to look at him. "Besides, this is a perfect opportunity for them to get to know the new Meijin, eh?" Kawaguchi couldn't argue against that, so he stayed silent. "Trust me, they all love you already for the fact that you're about to turn up. Do you really think the former Meijin came to sing karaoke with us?" 

The plain thought of the second Meijin singing karaoke was a little too much for Meijin Kawaguchi the Third, and he had to struggle to keep a straight face. Showing up in an after-work gathering wasn't exactly his predecessor's style, especially if it was a social kind of event. "I'm not singing anything," he reminded the other man. "I want them to consider me professional." 

Allan gave him a smile for that. "That's fine," he replied reassuringly. "As long as you're willing to join us. It's not going to be the whole Works Team anyway since not everyone could make it, but nobody's expecting anything. Bah, they're probably thinking I was lying when I said you'd be coming too." He paused then shrugged. "I mean, someone claimed I might be able to talk you into coming to a Gunpla Battle meet-up, but this is..." 

"We're already here, so I guess I'm coming with you," Kawaguchi interrupted him. "Are we going in or not?" 

Allan looked pleased to hear that, and he turned and knocked on the door. A man in a PPSE uniform opened it, and Kawaguchi could hear someone just finish singing _Eien ni Amuro_ in the background. "Oh, there you are, chief!" The Works Team guy greeted them. "You said you'd be late, but we were starting to wonder." 

"Ah, had to deal with a little bit of paperwork," Allan told him. "And there was a certain someone I had to go pick up." 

Kawaguchi caught a couple of curious stares cast in Allan's direction as the man stepped inside the room. He followed, only to find over a dozen of people instantly looking at him instead of Allan. It didn't bother him too much, and Allan had been right at least; these people looked delighted to see him. 

He also had to admit he was a little surprised to find that PPSE had accommodations like this room in the premises; the room had a stage, giant screen, huge speakers and disco lights. Then again, the room was probably also useful for PR stuff or such during work hours, and most likely without the gaudy lights around. After work, however... 

"Meijin! So glad you could make it," one of the Works Team members welcomed him. "Please, take a seat. How about something to drink?" The man motioned at the few sofas, chairs and tables in the room. 

"Just juice or something," Allan cut in with a smile on his face. "Don't forget our new Meijin is underage." 

_Like you're one to talk,_ Kawaguchi added in his mind but said nothing. It wasn't like he could tell the age of most people here anyway. 

The Works Team member laughed a bit. "Oh right, chief. Well, a non-alcoholic drink then. You go sit too, I'll get you something." 

Totally not phased by this little scene, Kawaguchi waited for Allan to wander over to a nearby table before following the man. A couple of Works Team members whom he could vaguely recognize were sitting around there as well, and they offered him a couple of greetings. Allan was of course familiar with all these people and had no problems launching into random chit-chat with one - a Japanese young man called Takahashi, as identified by his name by Allan. 

There was music playing in the room, and Kawaguchi reminded himself that everyone was here to sing karaoke. People liked to listen to something while nobody was singing, apparently. He couldn't say if he had heard whatever was currently playing before, but it sounded vaguely familiar. An anime song, maybe? The singer sounded like someone he had heard before, and he figured it was most likely some popular anime song artist. 

"Meijin?" Allan called, and Kawaguchi snapped out of his analysis and looked at him. "Everything all right?" 

"Yes," he replied calmly. "I was just wondering about the song." 

"It's a song from the anime RahXephon, sung by Maaya Sakamoto," Allan's conversation partner pointed out, apparently more knowledgeable on the matter than Kawaguchi was. "And I think the composer of the song is Yoko Kanno," he continued. "You know, the Turn A Gundam soundtrack composer?" Kawaguchi nodded just a little. 

Allan waved his hand casually. "That's what they always play here when nobody's up on the stage." He grinned. "And if you didn't guess, that's what we sing, too. This is the Works Team, after all. Everyone loves Gundam, so it's mostly Gundam songs." 

"Of course," Kawaguchi acknowledged. At least he didn't have to come up with any other comments for the slightly awkward conversation as the Works Team member from earlier showed up with some drinks. 

"Here you go, chief; it's the usual. And this is for the Meijin," he said with a smile. Kawaguchi kept his cool and accepted the offered glass. It looked suspicious; it was a cocktail glass with something of a slightly greenish color, with a lemon slice and a little paper umbrella. Alcohol? Surely not; he figured it was either apple juice or green tea. He wasn't exactly sure of Allan's drink, though. 

One of the female Works Team members got up on the stage and took the microphone, and Kawaguchi could hear a familiar song starting to play; it was _Ash Like Snow_ from Gundam 00. Well, this was the "entertainment" they were here for, he concluded, slightly leaning back in his chair and watching the show. The woman wasn't that bad at singing, and he sipped his drink - which was indeed simply some kind of a juice mix - and did his best to act like he didn't enjoy this kind of stuff. The singer wasn't looking at the text on the screen at all, but that didn't really surprise him. 

The song eventually ended, and he turned his attention to the couple of Works Team members and Allan, who were having quiet conversation. Most people here were already slightly drunk, he noted as he took another sip from his glass. There were no tie bandanas or anything silly going on yet though, but that would probably change with time if they got more drunk. He figured it wasn't really his problem if anyone here got too drunk to go home anyway, except Allan maybe, but the man was still on his first glass of whatever he was drinking. 

"Enjoying yourself?" Allan inquired, and Kawaguchi gave him a slight shrug as a reply. "Ah, maybe not your type of thing," Allan continued. "But that doesn't matter! What matters is that the Meijin himself joined us on this fine evening!" 

...That was still Allan's first glass, right? Kawaguchi stared at him a little from behind the sunglasses, but nobody seemed to notice anything. The others in the group seemed to agree with Allan's words, though, and were being totally supportive. 

Someone wandered over, greeted him then chatted with Allan, and Kawaguchi wondered how long he was supposed to stay here. Until everyone was drunk enough to not notice he wasn't here anymore? He could go for that, as that was going to take less than half an hour at the rate everyone was drinking. The other people around this table had definitely already had a few drinks, and they were getting unusually social. 

"Ah, Meijin," someone addressed him, and he turned to look. What was this guy's name... Howard? "You know, I never got to ask about that model you had when you joined. What was it again?" 

Kawaguchi raised an eyebrow at the question. Gunpla? Right, Works Team. Why wouldn't they be interested? "Ah that. That was Zaku Amazing," he replied. "It's unfortunately not in condition to be displayed at the moment as there was a battle where I..." 

"That was a great battle," Allan intervened. "But the opponent was really good, and the poor gunpla was more or less destroyed. Our Meijin won though, naturally." 

"Oh, really? That must have been something to see," Howard said. "I do recall the chief talking about how you participated in the World Tournament last year with that same model. Just as expected from our new Meijin, a good builder on top of being a great fighter! Getting to the World Tournament previously on your own and everything." 

Allan nodded enthusiastically. "He did! See, this is how great our Meijin is. It was a really well-made model, too." 

"I'll have to rebuild a lot of parts, but I'll fix it one day," Kawaguchi remarked. "Right now, we have more important things to think about, hmm? I'll be counting on you when it comes to my gunpla." 

"But of course," Howard agreed. "Surely Chief Allan will help you with anything you need, and when it comes to gunpla, just leave it to us!" 

Another Works Team member got on the stage, and Kawaguchi turned to look. At least he didn't have to keep up with the conversation if someone was singing. As much as he hated to admit it, he had only been the Meijin for so short time that everything felt a little forced. It would probably take a little bit of time to play the role naturally. 

The song sounded familiar, and he stopped to think then looked at the other occupants of the table. "They have karaoke versions of character songs?" 

"They do," Takahashi the Works Team song expert confirmed. "I see Meijin knows his Gundam songs." 

"I can't remember the song title, but I do believe it's one of Heero Yuy's character songs," Kawaguchi stated nonchalantly. 

Allan looked thoughtful, but Takahashi was faster. "This one is called 'Even If You Smile' and it's indeed one of Heero's songs." This man sure knew a lot about anime songs, Kawaguchi thought to himself. 

"They certainly have a good selection here, then," Kawaguchi said mostly to himself, but Allan and Takahashi nodded. Someone showed up to bring more drinks, and Kawaguchi made a mental note that Allan was now on the second one - unless the man had managed to get another one while he had not been watching, of course. Why were they letting Allan drink alcohol in the first place, he had no idea. 

Howard was still around and patted Allan on the back, being all friendly and slightly drunk. "Say, chief, shouldn't you bring him to a Gunpla Battle night instead, that would be interesting!" 

"So everyone would lose in an instant?" Allan answered cheerfully, and Kawaguchi smirked just a little. That sounded like a very possible outcome, seeing these after-work parties involved alcohol. Surely there were a couple of people here who could play Gunpla Battle decently, but he doubted their ability to do that while drunk. 

Kawaguchi ignored the quiet chatter and watched as the man up on the stage ended his song. A woman and a man took his place, and the next song Kawaguchi recognized right off; it was _Moment_ from Gundam Seed. A karaoke duet? It was pretty good, actually. 

"Oh, they've been practicing," Allan noted and emptied his glass. Kawaguchi listened to the song and wondered to himself if those two had been singing together before. Apparently, then. 

"Come on, you go sing, chief," Takahashi tried, but Allan shook his head and looked slightly bothered. 

"I'll go!" Howard claimed and wandered off to the side of the stage. He waited for the duo to finish, and Kawaguchi sipped his drink again, noting that he had also been brought another one. Hopefully, it was the same juice. 

"Okay, time for some Char's Counterattack," Howard chimed in the microphone, and the drunken Works Team members cheered. Kawaguchi rolled his eyes, swearing in his mind that he would do his best to keep drinking to the minimum even after he turned twenty years old. _Beyond the Time_ started playing, and he leaned on his hand, listening. 

Allan patted him on the shoulder. "It's not that bad, is it?" He asked, looking a little concerned. "These are good people, I can guarantee you that much." He smiled a little. "And besides, they're Gundam nerds, all of them!" 

"I've noticed," Kawaguchi replied and took a deep breath. Allan was right, and he was probably just nervous because of his title. There was no reason to try pretending he was Meijin Kawaguchi the Second though, was there? He was the Third, and while he wanted to play it cool, he could surely relax. 

Howard eventually finished his song and another man got on the stage. Something from the 80's started playing, and Kawaguchi stared at the screen, wondering what it was this time. There was probably a song name somewhere on the screen but with sunglasses on, he couldn't see the text clearly enough to tell. It didn't sound like anything he could instantly recognize. 

"No Reply... kin no sunadokei.." he sung, and Kawaguchi turned at the song expert sitting next to Allan. 

"What is this?" He inquired. "I don't think this is from Gundam." 

"That's 'Kaze no No Reply', the second opening song from Heavy Metal L-Gaim," Takahashi explained. "Another anime that was created by Tomino. Oh and an interesting fact - the original singer of this one also did the first Zeta Gundam opening." 

"People do sing occasional other anime songs, or random popular stuff," Allan said with a shrug. "I'd dare to claim it's over seventy percent Gundam though." 

"The ones you sing too?" Kawaguchi asked with a hint of a smirk on his face. 

Allan laughed a bit. "Well, yes." 

"Are you planning on singing, then?" Kawaguchi teased him. "Didn't your friend here already try to get you to do it?" 

"Maybe in a bit," Allan mumbled a quick excuse and wandered over to the side of the room where the bar was. Kawaguchi was almost certain he heard the man comment to Howard something about not wanting to embarrass himself in front of the Meijin. Takahashi looked at Kawaguchi, offering him a slight shrug and a smile, and Kawaguchi had to wonder if he had missed something here. Did his presence here make Allan uncomfortable? That sounded totally unlike the man, though. 

The L-Gaim song ended, and Allan returned with another drink - was it third or fourth, now? Kawaguchi was handed another fancy cocktail glass of juice, not that he had started on the second one yet. "Your turn, chief," Howard said, poking Allan on the side. "Go on!" 

Allan emptied his glass and sighed, then headed to the stage. He took the microphone then smiled. "Right then," he commented. "Something in English, everyone likes that eh?" 

The Works Team cheered, and Kawaguchi just tilted his head a little. Allan singing. This had to be entertaining, he told himself as the man started singing _Magic_ from Stardust Memory, but then he frowned and just observed for a moment. There was something that made him freeze; everyone else was just happily watching and cheering on their chief on the stage, apparently not realizing Kawaguchi's little dilemma. 

First of all, Allan was exceptionally good at singing, so good that Kawaguchi was a little taken aback by it. 

Second, he was looking in one particular direction. Straight at Kawaguchi, while singing about wanting a proper relationship. It was like time stopped, and the song just continued and Kawaguchi prayed in his mind that everyone was just enjoying themselves and not seeing anything special. 

When Allan got to the, "I'm the one who wants you, oh how much I want you" part and was giving him this deep, meaningful look, Kawaguchi had to wonder if he was red on his face yet. 

Then the song was over, Allan got off the stage with a grand applause and headed back to their table's direction. Yet another Works Team guy whose name Kawaguchi could not remember took the stage and went for _merry-go-round_ from Gundam Unicorn. Kawaguchi snapped out of his daze and waited for Allan to come close enough then grabbed him by the arm and dragged him to the side of the room. Nobody was really paying any attention to them, which suited him just fine. 

"What was that all about?" He asked, doing his best to keep his cool. He failed just a little, but Allan probably didn't notice. 

Allan shrugged a little. "Nothing! They do love making me - or any other native English-speaker really - sing in English. You should hear me sing the Gundam X first ending. I swear I've been forced to sing 'Human Touch' more than enough times, and..." 

"Not that." Kawaguchi paused and looked at the man, then looked away, pretending to be watching the stage when in reality he just didn't want to look at Allan right now in fear that the man would have noticed something. "Just that... thing you were doing." 

"What are you taking about?" Allan sounded confused, and Kawaguchi turned to look at him again with a slight frown on his face. 

"You kept staring at me the whole time," Kawaguchi pointed out, and Allan just looked at him, still with the same baffled expression. "Seriously, do you have any idea what kind of look you were giving me?" 

The point Kawaguchi was making was slowly registering in Allan's mind, and Kawaguchi just sighed. "That wasn't on purpose, I swear!" Allan finally said with a bit of an embarrassed grin on his face. "Uh... Nobody noticed, I hope? I might have gotten a little bit carried away with that." 

"Or maybe you're drunk and it _was_ on purpose," Kawaguchi stated, dead serious. "But who know, I might not be so annoyed if I wasn't wearing all this," he mused mostly to himself. "But since I am..." 

Allan looked so totally mortified that Kawaguchi simply gave up, returned to the table and emptied his drink. He had known Allan too long and knew he was being honest, so he couldn't really make an argument here. He was just happy to stay relatively unmoved by it, seeing that the song had actually had an effect on him. Luckily, Allan seemed to have missed it. 

"I'm sorry," Allan, who had followed him, offered. "Really, I didn't-" 

"Forget about it," Kawaguchi cut in. "You're just drunk." 

"From drinking his usual oolong tea?" Takahashi inquired, and Kawaguchi stared at him for a moment then simply shrugged. 

"Drunk on the atmosphere," he managed to state in an indifferent tone of voice. Allan meanwhile said nothing but just snatched another of his _tea_ drinks from the table and emptied it in one go before pretending nothing had happened. 

It didn't matter In the end since nobody had apparently noticed a thing, Kawaguchi calculated. Everyone was just happily chatting, singing or dancing even. It was just his insecurity of playing the Meijin role flaring up, right? ...And his stupidity in assuming that Allan had actually been drinking alcohol combined with Allan singing to _him_ like that. 

He spent the next few minutes looking away from Allan and listening to a random male Works Team member amuse the whole room with _Namida no Mukou_ from Gundam 00; the guy was rather bad at singing, but it was to the point where it was entertaining and nobody seemed to mind and everyone was having fun, no matter the quality of the song. Towards the end of the song, Kawaguchi just stared at his silly cocktail glass and wondered if he could leave yet. Allan seemed to be ignoring him currently, though. 

When the previous guy was done, a female Works Team employee got on the stage, and the Gundam Seed Destiny insert _Shinkai no Kodoku_ started playing. "Kanashimi wo oshiete..." She started, and Kawaguchi, along with everyone else if they hadn't been doing so already just turned to look at her. Her interpretation of the song was unbelievably good. 

Nobody said a word while she was on stage; most people looked really moved, and as the song went on Kawaguchi noticed a few were tearing up. ...Including Allan, he caught from the corner of his eye. 

"Of all the things..." He muttered under his breath, dug out a handkerchief from his pocket and offered it to the man. "Here." 

Allan took it, still looking like he was on the verge of crying. One of the Works Team women from the table next to them was sniffing, and Kawaguchi felt like covering his face with his hands, but he had an appearance to keep and was not about to react in any way. Well, he had to admit the singer was so good that she matched Stella's voice actor, and the feeling she managed to put into the song was simply overwhelming. 

The song finally ended, the woman bowed a little and left the stage. Since no one seemed to be interested in singing right now, the system went back to Best of Yoko Kanno or whatever it had been playing earlier. It was mostly quiet otherwise, and Kawaguchi looked around, just to confirm that there were more drunk Works Team members moved by that song that he had expected. 

"Damn that Kira," cursed a guy at the next table, and the others there seemed to agree. "It was totally unnecessary... Stella had already..." 

There were a couple of other notions of dislike for certain events of Gundam Seed Destiny, and Kawaguchi made some quick calculations in his mind concerning his next action. Things were getting a little too gloomy for his taste, here. Sure, people were drunk, but all this over one song? 

"Allan," he called coolly, and the man looked at him curiously. "Get on the stage, put on _Char ga Kuru_ for me. _Now._ " 

A quick confused look, then the blond got on his feet and did as ordered. Kawaguchi followed him, took the microphone and cleared his throat. There was little change to the atmosphere and not many people seemed to be paying attention to what was going on, but then there was "Char! Char!" and everyone snapped out of their little bout of depression. 

It had worked, Kawaguchi mentally noted as he performed the song easily without taking a single glance at the screen showing the lyrics. By the first, "Char Char Char" the whole room was looking at him, and he smirked a little, putting a little more effort into his singing. 

It had totally worked, and half of the people were chanting that "Char" with him now. Everyone looked like they were having fun again, and he sang on, offering the Works Team members a few minutes of unusual entertainment. Allan was meanwhile giving him this impressed look, and he grinned, extended his right hand and pointed his index finger straight at Allan at, "Char ga TA-GET-TO" and enjoyed himself a little more than he should have. 

Then the song ended, there was a standing ovation, and Kawaguchi smoothed his hair a little and stepped down from the stage, only to get surrounded by several people. 

"Wow," one stated. "I didn't know our Meijin is such a good singer!" 

"Definitely," said another - it was actually just Howard who had also showed up. Kawaguchi put an impassive look on his face and just nodded a little. 

One of the Works Team girls looked impressed. "You know, Meijin," she said. "With that kind of voice, you should have considered becoming an idol!" 

"Ah, really?" Kawaguchi replied matter-of-factly, then Allan was there to save him from these drunken idiots. He looked at the man then turned to face the Works Team members. "Well, I supposed that's enough for me for one night. Shall we go, Allan?" 

Allan gave him a quick questioning look then just smiled. "Whatever the Meijin says." 

"Oh, won't you stay? We could all sing _Tobe! Gundam_ or something," Howard said, and Kawaguchi felt like laughing but managed to keep up with his well-composed appearance. 

"Another time, perhaps. Excuse me, then." With that, he headed towards the door with Allan in tow. He was cheered by a couple of Works Team members they passed and the guy closest to the door saluted with a stupid grin on his face. 

Once they were finally out of the door, Kawaguchi took a deep breath to keep himself calm. It was not that he was bothered, really; it had been almost exciting. Almost. At least it had been kind of enjoyable. 

"That was great!" Allan told him the moment the door was closed. "And you really are good at singing, you know." 

Kawaguchi ignored the praise but stopped and looked at the Works Team chief. "You know what," he said with a hint of a smile on his face, with his tone of voice finally losing some of the emotionless Meijin act. "I'm glad I agreed to come." 

"You..." Allan looked so happy that Kawaguchi had to turn away. There was a part of somewhere deep inside of him that loved that particular smile, and he felt a little lightheaded just seeing it. He was not about to lose his cool now, though. 

He took a few steps forward then stopped. "I'm Meijin Kawaguchi the Third," he mused. "I will keep it professional, but might just as well take it a little easy sometimes..." He trailed off with a slight shrug and turned to look at Allan again. "Besides, they were all drunk. Not many of them are going to remember that in the morning." 

Allan laughed a bit. "Well, there is that." 

"Now then," Kawaguchi stated with a hint of a smirk and took a step closer to Allan. He was almost tempted to grab the man by the collar and draw him close but he didn't dare to in public. "You compliment on my singing, while your own is really good," he said. Allan looked a little embarrassed, but Kawaguchi didn't give him time to say anything. "So... I recall you saying you've sang _Human Touch_ several times?" 

"I have," Allan confirmed. 

"I'd like to hear that one," Kawaguchi remarked with a dangerous smile rising to his lips. "As a private performance. In my bedroom." 

Allan stared at him for a few second with a look that was a mixture of shock, curiosity, and affection before that usual smile returned to his face, and he bowed a little. 

"Whatever the Meijin says." 

**  
**END.  


**Author's Note:**

> Amusingly, I learned only after finishing this that Allan is actually 19 years old and therefore should not be drinking alcohol (Japanese drinking age being 20), but thankfully that didn't require much editing. After all, it's mostly Kawaguchi thinking Allan's drunk.


End file.
